Monday, 16 July 2018

Inspired by a beautiful and witty story of a cunning fox written by Rudolf Těsnohlídek, author and journalist, and Stanislav Lolek, artist, published as a serialized novella in "Lidové noviny" newspapers in 1920, Leoš Janáček composed the opera "The Cunning Little Vixen". With its wit, depth of thought and emotional strength as well as its scenic design and spectacularity, this opera will address both adult and child audience.

Tuesday, 17 July 2018

Vilém Veverka is one of the most acclaimed Czech oboists. He studied at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, and attended courses given by the renowned French oboist Jean-Louis Capezzali. His artistic development was crucially shaped by performing with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and his subsequent study with the prominent German oboist Dominik Wollenweber, to which he linked up by performing for two years with the renowned Berliner Philharmoniker (Karajan Stiftung). The path he had pursued culminated in this triumph at one of the most prestigious oboe competitions - Tokyo/Sony Music Foundation (2003). As a soloist, he performed with the leading both Czech and foreign orchestras.

The young and dynamic chamber orchestra Ensemble 18+ was established in cooperation with the conductor and cembalist Vojtěch Spurný in 2009. The orchestra cooperated for example with Israeli conductor Elli Jaffem and many excellent soloists -D. Pecková, K. Kněžíková, G. Demeterová and others. In the roles of Schwarzenberg musicians, essential part of Ensemble 18+ participated in a unique project of shooting of a reconstruction of the opera "Dove é amore, é gelosia" (Where there is Love, there is Jealousy) written by G. Scarlatti in Prague and in baroque theatre in Český Krumlov in coproduction with the Czech Television. The orchestra has organised, with the support from the capitol of Prague and Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, four subscriber concert series, and regularly performs at domestic festivals, for example Smetana's Litomyšl, Plzeň 2015, International Music Festival of Peter Dvorský, St. Wenceslas Festival, etc.

Wednesday, 18 July 2018

Violinist Kristina Nouzovská Fialová has been primarily praised by the critics for her impeccable technique, impassioned performance and sophisticated musical sentiment. After becoming absolute winner of 2013 Michal Spisak International Competition in Katowice, Poland, the young violinist was invited to the major concert stages in Europe. Her appearance at the prestigious Tivoli Festival in Denmark was followed by her debuting at the Tonhalle Zürich and giving a recital at the 2015 Prague Spring festival. She has regularly performed opposite renowned Czech and foreign orchestras conducted by distinguished conductors. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with a number of superb soloists. She has performed at most of concert halls across Europe, including Russia, as well as in Africa, Asia, South and North America. Her major festival appearances include Copenhagen Summer Festival, South Bohemia Chamber Festival, Janáček May, Kulturtage Dresden, renowned Festival Internacional de Santander in Spain, Bergen International Festival in Norway or Vesna v Rossii in Moscow.

Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, founded in 1969, is one of the Czech Republic's top orchestras. The repertoire of this chamber orchestra includes a large number of compositions from baroque era, through classicism and romanticism to contemporary music, including various multigenre projects. In Pardubice, the orchestra organises traditional subscription cycles and other extraordinary concerts, more and more focusing on the young and youngest generation of listeners. It also performs in other towns of the region and the entire country. The orchestra regularly takes part in the Czech Republic's most important festivals, including Prague Spring International Festival, Smetana's Litomyšl, Janáček May in Ostrava, International Český Krumlov Festival and others. The first principal conductor of the orchestra was Libor Pešek. The following persons were leading the orchestra thereafter: Libor Hlaváček, Petr Altrichter, Bohumil Kulínský, Petr Škvor, Róbert Stankovský, Leoš Svárovský and Marko Ivanović. Since 2014, Peter Feranec has been the principal conductor of the orchestra. The chamber philharmonic orchestra performed at prestigious European stages (Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Musikverein in Vienna, Tonhalle in Zürich, etc.), also performed in USA, Japan and China.
The orchestra is occasionally invited to take part on opera and theatre projects and has performed dozens of successful recordings for domestic and foreign music labels (Supraphon, ArcoDiva, Naxos).

Thursday, 19 July 2018

Kateřina Javůrková studied at Prague Conservatory in the class of prof. B. Tylšar. Since 2011 she had been studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, taught by Z. Divoký and R. Baborák. During her studies she completed an educational stay at Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur de Musique et Danse Paris in the class of prof. André Cazalet. She is a winner of several international performance contests, for example International Brass Contest in Brno, International Contest "Federico II di Svevia" in Italy (2011), and in the same year she became the absolute winner of the International Horn Performance Contest held during the "Moravian Autumn" festival. The latest success of Kateřina Javůrková is winning 1st prize and the title of a laureate of international performance contest Prague Spring 2013. She cooperates with the leading Czech and foreign ensembles conducted by famous conductors. In the chamber sphere, she performs in wind Belfiato Quintet.

Slovak Sinfonietta orchestra was established in 1974 as the one and only orchestra of "Mozart Type" in Slovakia. Since then the orchestra has acquired an important position not only in Slovakia and Czech Republic, but in a short time it has achieved an excellent reputation also abroad. In 1977 the orchestra attained international recognition when it became the festival orchestra of Salzburger Festspiele. Soon it received an invitation to the Prague Spring festival, which was followed by successful performances at many festivals throughout Europe. The orchestra performed in many renowned concert halls, such as Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Tonhalle in Düsseldorf, Comic Opera and Konzerthaus in Berlin, Saint Francis Cathedral in Assisi, Palace of Music in Barcelona, Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, Symphony Hall in Osaca, Metropolitan Art Hall in Tokyo, Teatro Abadia in Madrid, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and others. The orchestra has performed more than 2,800 concerts in almost every country of Europe, in Tunis, Turkey, Armenia, China, Japan, USA and Canada, and as a first Slovak orchestra, also in South American continent in Brazil.

Leoš Svárovský (1961) studied flute at the Prague Conservatoire and conducting at the Academy of Music in Prague, with the renowned professor Václav Neumann, whose was the last student. His brief history: Chief Conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic, Brno Philharmonic, artistic director at the State Opera Prague, tour with the Czech Philharmonic in the USA and with Slovak Philharmonic to Japan. He performed throughout the Europe, USA, Japan and Korea, cooperated with many excellent orchestras and was guest of many important music festivals in the Czech Republic (Smetana´s Litomyšl, Prague Spring, Moravian Autumn, Easter Festival of Sacred Music, Janáček May, Prague Autumn, Emma Destinn Music Festival) as well as abroad (Festspiele Europäische Wochen Passau, George Enescu Festival Bucharest, Colorado Music Festival, Settimane Musicali di Ascona, Musica Sacra Nürberg, Dias da Musica in Belém).

Nowadays is Leoš Svárovský a Chief Conductor of the Aichi Central Symphony Orchestra Nagoya and Principal Guest Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic. He is also frequent guest conductor at many Czech orchestras - Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia etc. To name just a few orchestras he cooperated with: Orchestre de Pays de la Lorraine Metz, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Bach Collegium München, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Residentie Orkest den Haag, RTL Symphony Orchestra Luxembourg, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Shanghai Radio Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphonie Orkest Utrecht, The Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra Ankara, Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and many others.

He also cooperated with many outstanding soloists, including R. Firkušný, J. Suk, V. Hudeček, I. Ardašev, P. Šporcl, V. Pikajzen, D. Geringas, A. Noras, M. Fedotov, C. Ortiz, G. Opitz, H. Hardenberger, D. Damrau, I. Oistrach, S. Vladar, M. Gauci, K. Ricciarelli, K. Rydl, S. Larin, N. Martinucci, E. Randová, D. Pecková, L. Orgonášová, P. Dvorsky, R. Buchbinder, S. Kovatschewitch, A. Kontarski, Ch. Poltera, L. Josephowitsch, X. de Maestre, F. Say, U. Ughi, A. Korobeinikov, G. Bellucci, S. Jaffé, Andrej Baranov and many others. Leoš Svárovský appears often at Rheingau Music Festival - with Brno Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno - in projects such as Dvorak´s Requiem (2008), Liszt´s Christus, Massenet´s Maria Magdalene (2010), Verdi´s Requiem (2013), Berlioz´s Romeo and Juliet (2014) , Dvorak´s Stabat Mater (2015) and Orff Carmina Burana, Dvořák Te Deum und Slavonic Dances (2016).

Leoš Svárovský conducted the world premiere of Czech composer Slavomír Hořínka´s Violin Concerto with Sophia Jaffé and the Czech Philharmonic at the Brno Moravian Autumn festival. He was re-invited to the Festspiele Europäische Wochen Passau (with Sophia Jaffé and Radio Symphony Orchestra Prague) and to Settimane musicali di Ascona Festival in Merano. In October 2011 he made his debut with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra in Moscow. The cooperation with Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra continued in spring 2015 by concert in Prague, in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle. In the season 2016/17 Leoš Svárovský is re-invited to conduct the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra at the Big Hall of Conservatorium in Moscow with program Suk and Dvořák.

Leoš Svárovský is regularly invited to Japan and Korea. He performs regularly in Japan with Brno Philharmonic (2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017) and Slovak Philharmonic (2012, 2014, 2015,2018). He gave few subscription concerts with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. His engagements has led him to perform at Prague, Brno, Salzburg, Wuppertal, Spain, Portugal, to music festivals in Český Krumlov, České Budějovice, Bratislava, to subscription concerts with Slovak Philharmonic, with Radio Symphony Orchestra Prague to Innsbruck, with Massenet´s Maria Magdalena to Brucknerhaus Linz, to New Year´s concert with Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, to German tour with Radio Symphony Orchestra Prague (January 2015) etc. The next German Tour follows in April 2017 - Frankfurt am Main, Essen Philharmonie, Erlangen, München Gasteig und Zürich Tonhalle.

Since 2000 he has been teaching conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Leoš Svárovský develops also his teaching career, being Docent (Associate Professor) at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague since October 2012.

Friday, 20 July 2018

Concert version of oratorio from 1600 with libretto by A. Mannini (1618). Emílio de' Cavalieri was an Italian composer and organist, but also a diplomat, choreographer and dancer at the end of the renaissance era. His work, along with that of other composers active in Rome, Florence and Venice, was critical in defining the beginning of the musical baroque era. Despite the fact that he is author of many madrigals and spiritual compositions, he has become renowned particularly thanks to a work, which is generally considered to be the first oratorio in the music history: Rappresentazione di Anima et Corpo.

The composition is a musical and dramatic presentation of the popular medieval motif, an argument between Body and Soul for who is responsible for sins committed by humans in their lives. Usually such dispute follows death of a person, but in this composition it is held during a life, even though at its end. The main motif is the ordeal of the sinner before Christ, with participation of allegoric characters: Justice, Truth, Mercy, and Tranquillity. The desired result is of course the win of the soul and its salvation. The work that is a corner stone of barque opera resulted from the efforts to revive the ancient musical drama. The scenic conception of the oratorio complies with the aforementioned.

Czech Ensemble Baroque is a professional ensemble staging stylish performances of older style eras in an authentic interpretation using period instruments, established by the conductor Roman Válek in 1998. The ensemble consists of three sections: orchestra, vocal ensemble and soloists. Members are professional instrumentalists and singers from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Germany.

Roman Válek has been the principal conductor of the ensemble from the beginning. Concert masters are Peter Zajíček and Elen Machová, the head of vocal ensemble is Tereza Válková. Cooperating artists include for example: A. Plachetka, Jean-Francois Lombard, M. Cukrová, R. Janál, Joel Frederiksen, M. Koudelková, L. Peterková, Barbara Maria Willi, M. Knoblochová, László Borsódy, M. Štryncl and others.

14 July to 2 August 2018

Thursday, 19 July 2018

Saturday, 21 July 2018